Haiku Windows: ticket wicket

Haiku Windows

In the book Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, editors Yamaguchi and Brooks quote David Lanoue: “A haiku is a window”…

In the following weeks we will look at (or through?) the many possibilities raised by this thought – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme: spaceship window

Imagine looking out the window to a view of deep space… what do stars look like close-up? Or Mars? Or the moon? What does it feel like to be homesick for that blue-green planet?

I look forward to reading your submissions.

Haiku Windows: ticket wicket

drive-thru
monoxide
sandwich

Helen Buckingham

Would you like fries with that?
Humour can be used to make a very serious point…

swampland jaunt
the toll booth window
with a bug screen

Marilyn Appl Walker

Each week there have been such original takes on the theme for this column, and this is another of those… I prefer screens on all my windows, (mosquitoes!), but I had never imagined one on a toll booth window…

bank teller’s window
for just one moment
double the money

Skaidrite Stelzer
Toledo, Ohio

An optical illusion may be what is described in this poem – and one we hear about in financial circles… wouldn’t we all like to double our money, but for more than just one moment!

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

behind the teller’s window
my money detained
by the internet

Adjei Agyei-Baah
Kumasi, Ghana

new diagnosis
fumbling for change
at the ticket window

Amy Baranski

gateway
to my getaway –
ticket window

Amy Losak

a glimpse
of red nail varnish
ticket office window

Andrew Shimield
UK

bank counter
only hands
of the cashier

Angiola Inglese

a car window
rolling down
traffic ticket

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas NV

lottery –
a ticket to her dreams
in my hands

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

sleeper upgrade
a bee settles
on my ticket

Astrid Egger

pay toll here
my 2 cents worth
the change

Betty Shropshire

show time –
long lines to the
ticket wicket

Carol Raisfeld

wee hours
parking booth
attendant snores

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

once again
wishing on a star
lottery window

Christina Sng

new faces
at the pharmacy window
same prescriptions

Claire Vogel Camargo

ticket wicket
behind the window
the shadow of a man

Debbi Antebi

ticket wicket
at the airport parking lot
cooled bottled water

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

I pay from distance
old wicket replaced by
computer monitor

Dubravka Scukanec
Zagreb, Croatia

bank teller
the family secrets unveiled
to a stranger

Eufemia Griffo

old model…
the man at the toll booth
still smirking

Gautam Nadkarni

grandson asking
what is speed of life
a toll booth on highway

Guliz Mutlu

ticket wicket
of the lottery centre
open-and-shut

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

gran holds up the queue
at the ticket window…
her purse of small change

Ingrid Baluchi
Uganda

merry-go-round
at the tip of her toes
to buy a ticket

Joanne van Helvoort

cashing a cheque
the teller’s eyes
glazed over

John Hawkhead

drive-thru window
waiting for fast food
a line of ants

Karen Conrads Wibell

automated wicket
stuck in the parking lot
overnight

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena, California

lemonade stand
i offer a paper airplane
and ten cents

Ken Olson
Yakima WA US

patrolman
outside my window
a ticket

LPConvey
Brisbane, Australia

Post Office…
the employee’s frozen smile
through the wicket

ufficio postale … quel sorriso forzato / allo sportello

Lucia Cardillo

the blank stare
of the ticket vendor
my bad Italian

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

movie ticket counter
he checks my seniors card
for the discount

Madhuri Pillai

mortgage-backed security…
she says “hi”
thru bullet proof glass

Mark Gilbert
UK

ticket window…
he asks me if i know
the speed limit

Mary Hanrahan

Parking lot booth –
window protecting
the replaced human

Michael Ceraolo
South Euclid, Ohio

reunion tour
dozing off at the
ticket window

Michael Henry Lee

race track window
she bets four rolls of pennies
on the jockey in pink

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

ticket wicket
the rim glassed cashier
peers at me

Mohammad Azim Khan

a night
on the town
ATM

Nancy Brady
Ohio, USA

the bank’s nonchalance…
an old man in shabby tweeds
at the wicket

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

that feeling
of being swindled
currency exchange wicket

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

ticket window…
with the change, he gives me
a cherry blossom

Praniti Gulyani

bank drive-through
a disembodied voice
bounces my check

Pris Campbell

teller window front
her eyes faster than
his fingers

Radhamani Sarma

New York
here I come
toll bridge window

Rehn Kovacic

pawn shop window
my sister redeems
her wedding vow

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

beneath the shuttered theatre
will-call window
a sleeping bag

robyn brooks
usa

ghost train ride
a pretty vampire smiles
from the ticket window

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

theme park special pass
I skip long lines
and lunch

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

joining the queue –
there is nobody
at the ticket wicket

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

pawnbroker’s wicket
behind bulletproof glass
a spray of violets

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

rainy day
the girl-cashier smiles
in the ticket wicket

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

between posters
of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
the ticket seller’s smile

Simon Hanson
Queensland, Australia

milk booth
vendor leaves with
the refugee child

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

toll booth window
the guy ahead in it too
autumn rain

Stephen A. Peters

I don’t remember
the toll
just his eyes

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

a girl flirts
with a conductor through
the ticket wicket

Tomislav Maretic

circus ticket booth –
I become a child
once more

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

runaway bride
behind the window lies
ticket to her dreams

Vandana Parashar

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

A wonderful batch of haiku, Kathy, thank you so much. And thank you for including mine. I love Helen Buckingham’s and Marilyn Appl Walker’s also and your commentary. All the toll booth ones I am partial to, actually, as I am one of the last people on earth not to have EZ Pass and so I still pay my tolls in cash at a tollbooth to a human being.

Several poems here made me smile . . . knowingly as well, with Olivier’s feeling swindled, and Mark’s.
I admire the brevity of Helen’s: the whole scenario — what’s more a comment on our times — in just seven syllables. Brilliant.
Kathy, thanks for including mine.
Outer space . . . here we come!

I just had to say this!
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teller window front
her eyes faster than
his fingers
.
Radhamani Sarma
.
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Brilliant! This has atmosphere, movement, and mystery. It’s a great opening line to a short story or a novel as well!
.
.

Thanks Deborah!
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I’ve compiled a few, and submitted via my email: admin@callofthepage.org
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It sometimes goes into people’s Spam Folder for some odd reason, if you don’t see it. 🙂
.
Like you, I thought Susan Rogers’ haiku was very cool!
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I’ve written some fresh Space Haiku, some with windows, so just going through a rotation of revisions, and I hope they’ll find homes. 🙂
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warm regards,
Alan